Album review - Beach House 'Teen Dream'

Beach House

‘Teen Dream’

(Sub Pop)

TEEN DREAM, the third album by quirky duo Beach House - French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally - is a bizarrely titled one, given that it is in fact the album that sees the ‘dream-pop’ duo mature and graduate after two earlier offerings, which were both bursting with potential, but failed to make much in the way of an impact on these shores.

A woozy, atmospheric album that screams of diverse influences, but retains a unique feel, Teen Dream is, however, an early contender for ‘Best Of’ lists, just three weeks into the year.

An eclectic duo that like to experiment with spacey rhythms and haunting lyrics, Beach House have produced an immensely engaging and affecting album that will remain with you long after you hear it.

Containing the 2008 single Used to Be - which forms a strong central core of songs along with the superb Matter of Time and Lover of Mine - Teen Dream has been much anticipated among fans, who include Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, for whom Legrand guested on the song Two Weeks on their excellent Veckatimest.

The gloriously uplifting Used to Be is a shiny, shimmering slice of gentle baroque-pop, a Brian Wilson meets Galaxy 500 offering that sees Legrand lay her soul and voice bare, her bare vocal quivering at the top of the melody’s height.

But Beach House have changed direction from their earlier offerings, which were a little too woozy and too opaque for these ears - Legrand, in particular, grabs the mic with both hands and clearly demonstrates her impressive vocal talents.

Opener Zebra is an undulating delight, a gentle yet throbbing beat propelling the song, while new single Norway - previously available as a free download - still retains its punch on the record and is the highlight of the album, deliciously diverse, boasting off-kilter melodies and Legrand’s breathy vocals.

Epic final song Take Care is impressive in its scope, a further example of the duo reaching heights others can only dream of.

RATING 4/5

Best Albums 2009 (International)

INTERNATIONAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2009 (Irish excluded, see post below)

10 - The Juan Maclean - The Future Will Come
A release on James Murphy's DFA Records, this is the closest we came to an LCD Soundsystem release in 2009. John MacLean's offering was one of the dance-punk-electro records of the year.


9 - Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Natasha Khan's second offering might not have the depth of first album Fur and Gold, but thanks to single 'Daniel', her star went bright, giving her the recognition she deserved.


8 - The XX - XX
A strange mix of electro-indie-pop and melancholic lyrics; should have been gloomy, but rather uplifting. Even better live.


7 - Florence and the Machine - Lungs
Poetry, fairytales and the bizarre from the recesses of Florence Welch's mind; plus some superb pop songs, made this a debut to be reckoned with. Better than the hype suggested.


6 - Wilco - Wilco
The self-titled eighth offering from Tweedy, Kline and co. After Sky Blue Sky, who would have believed they could keep the quality coming? They did.


5 - Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Dark, dark, dark offering from Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife. An electronic morass. Also gave rise to one of the strangest gigs we have ever seen at Oxegen '09. Affecting.


4 - Tinariwen - Imidiwan
Eight-piece electric guitar group, hailing from the bowels of the Southern Sahara Desert, release album of the year contender. Fabulously intoxicating.


3 - Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Swirling, LSD influenced psychedelica album from the ever-intriguing Avey Tare and Panda Bear, featuring Beach Boys-esque Baroque Pop and, well, a slew of other influences. Superb.




2 - Passion Pit - Manners
A joyous, bouncy, electro-pop delight from Michael Angelakos et al, released after the superb EP Chunk of Change. Tracks like Sleepy Head and The Reeling will never, ever leave your head/ears/consciousness after listening. The squeaky vocals were divisive, but the energy is terrific. Best gig of Electric Picnic '09 also, in our estimation.




1 - Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Best album of the year was a difficult call between Animal Collective/Passion Pit and this Warp Records classic, the follow-up to superb debut Yellow House. Fantastic. (Review below)




Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
(Warp Records)

IN 2004 Grizzly Bear - then largely the solo project of Ed Droste - released the hypnotic Horn Of Plenty, an atmospheric record dubbed "anti-folk" in some quarters.
Whatever about that baffling label, in 2006 Grizzly Bear released Yellow House, a more complete offering, featuring a full band for the first time.
The journey this quartet have come over the release of these albums is interesting, and relevant to the album. This third offering from Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest, was released earlier in the summer but is already shaping up to be one of the finest of the year.
Veckatimest is definitely the group’s most complete offering in their short career. The band have said they feel it is their most accessible, but that is a debatable point.
This is an album that will take weeks to sink in, but as it does, it will insert claws and refuse to be put to the back of the pile.
Opener Southern Point feels like a folk song, but is suffused with a polka beat, driving it forward. Interestingly the band are one of the few non-electronic outfits signed to Warp, but, for all their folk-indie leanings, there is an electro feel to some of the songs on this.
Fleet Foxes comparisons are inevitable, if a little lazy; although likely to be this year’s best release, as that self-titled debut was last year, there is more complexity here, an element of darkness that does not feature on Fleet Foxes pastoral folk offering.
However, the cheery, uplifting doo-wah of clear album highlight Two Weeks feels like it could have made it onto Fleet Foxes album, if not a Beach Boys one.
The epic All We Ask features an opening spine-tingling central guitar part that Jeff Buckley would have been proud of, while the song itself goes through at least three distinct phases, rising and falling through thumping bass, military drums and soaring vocals.
This is an example of the genre-mixing, experimental rock that Grizzly Bear excel at and shows why this band are Radiohead’s favourites.
Listen to While You Wait For The Others and fail to be impressed, the band coming together sporadically for glorious multi-vocal choruses.
Superb.
RATING 5/5

Album reviews - Grizzly Bear and Pocket Promise

Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
(Warp Records)

IN 2004 Grizzly Bear - then largely the solo project of Ed Droste - released the hypnotic Horn Of Plenty, an atmospheric record dubbed “anti-folk” in some quarters. Whatever about that baffling label, in 2006 Grizzly Bear released Yellow House, a more complete offering, featuring a full band for the first time.
The journey this quartet have come over the release of these albums is interesting, and relevant to the album. This third offering from Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest, was released earlier in the summer but is already shaping up to be one of the finest of the year.
Veckatimest is definitely the group’s most complete offering in their short career. The band have said they feel it is their most accessible, but that is a debatable point. This is an album that will take weeks to sink in, but as it does, it will insert claws and refuse to be put to the back of the pile.
Opener Southern Point feels like a folk song, but is suffused with a polka beat, driving it forward. Interestingly the band are one of the few non-electronic outfits signed to Warp, but, for all their folk-indie leanings, there is an electro feel to some of the songs on this.
Fleet Foxes comparisons are inevitable, if a little lazy; although likely to be this year’s best release, as that self-titled debut was last year, there is more complexity here, an element of darkness that does not feature on Fleet Foxes pastoral folk offering.
However, the cheery, uplifting doo-wah of clear album highlight Two Weeks feels like it could have made it onto Fleet Foxes album, if not a Beach Boys one. The epic All We Ask features an opening spine-tingling central guitar part that Jeff Buckley would have been proud of, while the song itself goes through at least three distinct phases, rising and falling through thumping bass, military drums and soaring vocals.
This is an example of the genre-mixing, experimental rock that Grizzly Bear excel at and shows why this band are Radiohead’s favourites.
Listen to While You Wait For The Others and fail to be impressed, the band coming together sporadically for glorious multi-vocal choruses.
Superb.
RATING 5/5



Pocket Promise
I’ve Been Here For Ages
(Stop Go Music Limited)

THERE IS so much good music coming out of the North of this country that, at last, the notion that the anaemic Snow Patrol are the sole ambassadors for Northern Ireland should be counteracted.
Hard rock outfit And So I Watch You From Afar have already impressed this year, while this debut from the hugely promising (and aptly titled) Pocket Promise appears ready to add to the strength in depth among the booming scene in Belfast and beyond.
Where And So I Watch... are all screeching guitars and a Rage-esque wall of sound, Pocket Promise have produced an album full of lush instrumentation, indie-rock with an intelligent bent. The band released a double A-side before the album came out and one half of that single opens this album, the excellent, Radiohead influenced If Not The Tide Will Change.
Surprisingly the other half of that single is one of the lower points of the album, Talking Over Talking just a bit too standard soft-core guitar rock for us.
However, if this is a low point - there are many high points, an impressive level of depth, melody and heartfelt harmony on several of the songs.
The lush, sweeping strings of Deja Vu is preceded by the seven minute epic Sorry, while the skiffle lullaby beat of Inside Out will drag you under its spell.
There is an energy prevalent throughout all the songs on this offering, which at a little under 50 minutes, feels a little short.
However, if this album gets heard by the right people, you will find it difficult to wander past a radio without Pocket Promise’s indie rock blasting at you.
RATING 3/5